Town of Beaumont ELCC - And here is the little something beautiful

Check out my 'Seeds of Empathy' post to get the back story to this.

Thanks Jodie for taking the time in your crazy world to talk to the family about posting these photos - such a beautiful moment between brother and sister....this made me cry....not sure about my first impressions...crying after being there for half an hour!!

How connected is this!!!

Town of Beaumont ELCC - Textiles and other cool stuff

The denim pockets are mounted on the walls for children to store special things....I liked this idea too

 Take a peep inside...

 Here the children have a tractor - safety is a big thing over here in Canada hence the mats around the tractor - for all you farmers out there - this is a John Deere one.

 A teacher at the centre made these ramps and the 'road markings' are denim painted with yellow midlines...this would be a good place for me to practice driving the Canadian way.

 I love this frayed and cellotaped road....

Town of Beaumont ELCC - Fairyland

I really liked this too - tucked away on the floor against the wall...

 Another micro environment - this one for the fairies...

 I like the thought that has gone into this space for the fairies....seats, tables, stairs and flowers

Town of Beaumont ELCC - Seeds of Empathy...and then something beautiful happened

The centre includes an 'anti-bullying' programme called 'Seeds of Empathy'. A family in the community volunteers to bring in their young baby for the year once per week to share the care and tender moments with the children in the centre. The teachers are trained to teach it - sounds a bit like the way the 'Incredible Years' is organised although it is a very different programme. Centres can't 'just do the programme'. 

These are the themes of the programme:

 Here they are tracking the baby's growth

 Representing it here in a graph....stretching the programme to include mathematics learning and graphs

Then something beautiful happened....a young child was sitting on the knee of a teacher on the floor being comforted on his first day...he needed the undivided attention he was receiving to find some calm as he worked through how he was feeling. His sister heard him from the adjoined room and was looking over the low gate at him to check in. I commented to Mary Lynne 'I wonder if they will bring her in to help comfort her brother?' and Mary Lynne replied 'We'll have to wait and see'. Sure enough, we turned around and Jodie was walking over to the young child and teacher with the big sister. It was such a beautiful moment that it bought tears to my eyes! Talk about congruency - taking me through the 'Seeds of Empathy' programme and then we see this happening. I took photos of this moment and will only share them if the family give consent. It worked too!!

Town of Beaumont ELCC - Micro Environments

I love these micro habitats and could think of many of you back home that will be making these as soon as you see them. The teachers are inspired by the ideas on Pinterest and construct these to respond to the children interests and learning. These photos are taken from three of the rooms at the centre - while each room is unique, there are some threads that are evident through the spaces. Access to natural materials is being increasingly introduced and the majority of materials are natural.

 Gotta love this perspective below - seems life size and this is the view of the 4-5 year olds in this room - how inviting is this???

 Multi level apartment living for the creatures that inhabit this space

 Platforms for adventures - opportunities for social encounters

  How cool is this below? - I looked at Mary Lynne and said "I want one of these" - I am building one when I get home.

 Took lots of angle shots so you (and I) can see how it was constructed. I really really want one of these in our office. I might even be able to cope if it is not pink!!!

 These rocks below are painted with characters and features to support the play and presented to the children in this tray....the teacher called them 'Story rocks'

The props represent the various cultural experiences children encounter and provide materials to support oral story telling...camp fire, bus, grapes and many others. I love this idea of the rocks being painted to enable the children to play out their working theories and social worlds. 

 But wait....there's more!!! A teacher or teachers were responsible for making these character and props....A snowboarder....totally relevant for Canada!!! I so want my own sets of these too!!!

 Action superheroes...

 Star Wars!!!...and there were lots more too. Rocks painted as 'Rock Monsters' and 'bugs'. The bugs idea links to one of my next posts. I have to spread these cool environments out across a few posts.

Introducing - Town of Beaumont Early Learning Child Care Centre

This morning I met jodie and her team at this centre in a town on the 'fringe' of Edmonton. This town has french connections and most information is presented in both english and french. 

The centre has five separate play rooms, an indoor space for physical activity and the outdoor environment (the outdoor environment is a focus for development).

From the information booklet:

The program is child centered with a focus on children learning through play. The staff use the Emergent Curriculum approach to observe children's interests and work in collaboration with

them to plan learning experiences. Learning is documented in the rooms on displays, through learning stories or in each child's personal portfolio. Activities are developmentally appropriate, with a balance of self-directed play, as well as planned and organized play experiences. We also believe the best environment for children is to be in small groups, so at a minimum, twice a day each play room divides into two small groups to ensure small group activities take place. Activities offered to the children are age appropriate for each group and includes elements from SPLICE (social, physical, language, intellectual, creative and emotional development).

After talking about celebrations with Grant MacEwan Early Learning Centre, I was interested in how this centre include celebrations in their programme. This is what their information booklet says about birthday celebrations...

Birthdays - At the center, we have adopted to acknowledge children's birthdays at a celebration that is held on the last Friday of each month. Our month end celebration involves honouring the children born within that month and enjoying snacks that we (along with the children) prepare here at the centre. Although we recognise that parents enjoy sending snacks on their child's birthdays - this can create an upset to the regular schedule and be uncomfortable / hazardous for children with allergies. We ask that you refrain from sending birthday snacks for your child's room and trust that we will mark the child's birth in our special celebration.